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The Motherland Calls / Mother Russia

1960
- 1970

This work is a small version of the monumental sculpture in Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia, which was erected to commemorate the Battle of Stalingrad.

The finished statue stands 87 metres high, almost twice the height of the Statue of Liberty in New York (46 metres). Construction of the monument began in 1959 and the memorial park was finally opened in 1967. Marshal of the Soviet Union, Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov, who led the defence of Stalingrad is bured in the area of the monument.

The model for the sculpture was a lady called Valentina Izotova, a waitress at the time in a local restaurant, and the inspiration would seem to have been the Winged Nike of Samothrace in the Louvre.

TECHNIQUE

Bronze on original wooden base

MEASUREMENTS

1908 -
1974

Vuchetic was a prominent artist working in the style of Socialist Realism. He was awarded the Lenin Prize, the Stalin Prize on five occasions, the Order of Lenin twice, as well as the Order of the Patriotic War. He was recognised as a Hero of Socialist Labour and as a People's Artist of the USSR.